: Investing in property in Spain has become very popular. There is no shortage of real estate agents in Spain but make sure you deal with a reputable one. There is a very wide selection of standards, from farmhouses (fincas) and plots through to luxury villas, townhouses and flats. Due to low European interest rates, this is a great time to consider Spanish real estate. Tourism is a huge part of the Spanish economy and this is reflected in the investment in this industry. The country has a pleasant, healthy climate and in recent years the local authorities have made great efforts to increase the number foreign tourists and residents. Prior to buying a property you should take a look at the different areas then view your favourites before making a final decision. To play it safe you could also rent a property for a few months in that area first. A checklist to get the most out of foreign property deals:

Have a builder or architect evaluate the integrity of the property.

Have your solicitor check outstanding debts on the property before parting with any money

Talk to your prospective neighbours about the area.

take photographs and draw sketches to take home with you.

Explore the property at least twice before you make a decision.

set your budget limit and stick to your initial financial estimate.

Check what amenities the property has for instance power, water, gas.

Up-front costs for purchasing in Spain It is usually the case that the buyer also pays the sellers fees. As well as the cost of the property, the buyer will be liable for transfer tax (IVA), plus 1/2% stamp duty. The property registration office will charge you a fee to change the new deeds . This is usually around 300Ђ. The charge is on a scale depending on the contract price. Banks may also charge an additional percentage for arranging the mortgage. In total you should allow 10% of the purchase price for costs. Though initially it seems complicated, compared to the property purchasing requirements in your own country, the property purchasing process in Spain is reasonably simple once you become accustomed to it.

: It’s relatively easy to save for retirement when you’re still young. Five thousand dollars set aside for a new baby grows to an amount that generates over a $100,000 a year in current-day dollars if the money earns 12 percent annually and inflation runs at 3 percent. NOTE The data is a little sketchy, but small-company stocks probably deliver average returns of around 12 to 13 percent over long periods of time. Small-company stocks are, however, very risky over shorter periods of time. The flip side of this is that it becomes difficult to save for retirement if you start thinking (and saving) late in your working years. If you’re 60, haven’t started saving, and want $25,000 a year in income from your retirement savings at age 65, you probably need to contribute annually more than you make. Say you’re in your 50s—or even a bit older. With the kids’ college expenses, or perhaps a divorce, you don’t have any money saved for retirement. What should you do? What can you do? This situation, though unfortunate, doesn’t need to be untenable. There are some things you can do. Just say no One tactic is not to retire—or at least, not yet. After all, you save for retirement so the earnings from those savings can replace your salary and wages. If you don’t stop working, you don’t need retirement savings to produce investment income. Note, too, that “not retiring” doesn’t mean you need to keep the same job. If you’ve been selling computers your whole life and you’re sick of it, do something else. Get a job teaching at the community college. (Maybe you’ll get summers off.) Join the Peace Corps and go to South America. Get a job in a daycare center and help shape the future. Give yourself breathing room A second tactic is to postpone retirement a few extra years, which, of course, also reduces the number of years you’re retired. Rather than working to age 62 or 65, for example, working until age 67 or 69—a few more years of contributions and compound interest income—will make a surprising difference, and you’ll boost substantially the money you receive from defined-benefit retirement plans. If you’re paying a mortgage, maybe you can pay that off in those few extra years, too. Redefine your sense of affluence A third and more unconventional tactic is to decide that less is more and tune into the art and philosophy of frugality. A good book on this subject is Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominquez and Vicki Robin (Viking Penguin, 1992). And if you decide to live on less while you’re still working, you’ll end up saving a lot more over the remaining years you work.

: Before I begin, you should know my name is Ross Treakle and I interview real estate investors as part of my job. In each interview I try and pick and pry at each investor to get the highest quality information so that my subscribers can hear up to date, high content interviews. Below I have taken an exert from the very first interview I ever conducted. I conducted this interview with my brother, Graham “Mr. Banker” Treakle. Graham is a short sale investor with special insider knowledge as he has worked in some of the nation's largest banking institutions. I always start off every interview asking the speaker to speak briefly about there particular area of expertise. Below is Graham's answer to what a short sale is and why banks accept short sales. “We'll go over the numbers, Ross. A short sale is pretty simple. If you have a property that's worth $150,000 and let's say it has a first mortgage for $100,000 and a second mortgage for $40,000-what that means is the total debt on that property, or the total mortgages, is $140,000. Being a real estate investor, I wouldn't want to buy a $150,000 house for $140,000. It doesn't make sense. A short sale is when you get the bank to not take $140,000, you get them to take less, like $110,000. The banks are going to do this for several reasons. First, they're going to have a lot of expenses that are associated with a foreclosure. They're going to have realtor's costs, foreclosure costs, holding costs, repair costs-they're going to have all sorts of fees associated with a foreclosure. Inevitably, the bank is only going to recoup somewhere around 70% of the value of the property. That's why banks will take short sales on foreclosures. The natural follow-up to that is, “Why are foreclosures such a hot commodity right now, and why is there a lot of buzz about them?” There are several reasons to that too, and it's really scaring the banks right now. The first one is: when I was at the bank and someone had equity in their home and I found out they had equity, I would call them up and say, “Hey, Mr. Smith, I see you have $30,000 in equity in your home. How would you like to get a home equity line of credit?” Or, “How would you like to pay off that car with a home equity loan?” So banks are constantly calling these homeowners to use equity in their home because there are some potential tax savings in structuring your finances that way. That's one of the things. Secondly, inflation is outpacing wage growth. That means what it takes for you to buy milk and eggs today is going to increase faster than how much your earnings are going to increase on average. For instance, if you have someone who's making $100,000 a year, let's say inflation is 3% and your raise every year is 1.5%. So inflation is growing at twice the rate your salary is. That's another component. That means folks are earning less and less, relative to the goods they're going to have to buy. The next thing is that a lot of folks may recall this brief refinance boom we've been going through, which is pretty important. People went out and got a lot of mortgages called “Adjustable Rate Mortgages,” which have an extraordinarily low interest rate to start, let's say 3% in some cases. But in a couple of years, maybe two to five, depending on the term of the Adjustable Rate Mortgage, their rate is going to go up, it's going to adjust upward. So people went out and bought more house than they could normally afford, or they refinanced, got the low payments, and bought a car that they couldn't afford if their payment had to adjust upward. What's going to happen here in the next two to five years is that all of these ARMs are going to be adjusting upward, and that's pretty critical because people aren't going to be able to afford them. They aren't going to be able to afford them because they didn't count on it, and also because inflation is outpacing wage growth. All of this sounds great, but you may say, “How is that going to affect my business?” Here's the way it affects your foreclosure real estate business. If you're in a judicial foreclosure State, where properties that are in foreclosure go through a judicial process before a foreclosure is complete; or a non-judicial foreclosure State, where the properties go through a trustee as they're going through a foreclosure-you're going to see less and less equity in these properties. So if you know, like I said earlier, that banks are going to take short sales because of the numbers-meaning they have to pay all of these expenses-and the foreclosed properties aren't going to have a lot of equity in them, you have to be able to negotiate short sales effectively if you're going to be working in the foreclosure market. The foreclosure market represents the most motivated sellers. Traditionally, with motivated sellers, you'll find really good deals. That's why banks are going to take foreclosures on the conditions that are spurring on all these foreclosures. It's an amazing phenomenon that we're working on right now. Folks might also ask about a common [inaudible]. Well, what if we're in a real estate bubble? If we're in a real estate bubble, that means values are going to go down, which means folks are going to owe more than what their property is worth. Again, negotiating short sales is going to be critical to your success in the foreclosure business. If we're not in a bubble, that's fine too. We already [backed out] the numbers; still negotiating short sales is going to be critical to your real estate business because people are borrowing up to, and sometimes above 100% of the value of their property. Whatever way you slice it, as far as having a skill, negotiating short sales is probably, in my opinion, one of the most lucrative skills that someone can have as a real estate investor.” I hope the above information gives you some insight into the world of real estate investing and short sales. Graham has worked very hard at becoming an expert on this topic and is a resource you should inevitably add to your business. If you would like to hear more information similar to this exert and many other interviews please visit my site at < reaudiotips> and sign up to receive all of my interviews at absolutely no cost. Also, if you would like to learn more about Graham “Mr. Banker” Treakle you can follow this link to his website, < reshortsalesuccess>.

Many people dream of owning a vacation home. But often concerns about maintaining it, renting it out in the off-season, or even justifying the expense when it’s only to be used for a couple weeks of the year keep them from making the dream a reality. Now condo hotels, an innovative type of vacation home ownership, provide a welcome solution to all these problems. Also known as condotels or aparthotels, condo hotels have been growing in popularity as an approach to owning a luxurious second home. Condo hotel buyers purchase an actual condominium unit in an upscale hotel or resort. The property functions as a full-service hotel, and owners have access to all facilities, amenities and services just like hotel guests. They receive a deed to their unit and can use their vacation home when they want. When not in residence, they can place their unit into the hotel’s rental program and share in the revenue it generates. Like most real estate investments, the owner can also sell his condo hotel unit at any time and may make a profit on its appreciated value. Young professionals, baby boomers and seniors alike are just beginning to discover the benefits of owning a condo hotel unit. They appreciate the hassle-free nature of condo hotels as a second home in which a professional management company handles everything from property maintenance to finding hotel guests to rent the units. They also consider condo hotels a means to diversify their investments. Condo Hotels Are Not Your Parents’ Timeshare As hybrid properties, condo hotels differ from timeshares in a number of ways. With timeshares, buyers pay only for the right to use the property for a set amount of time each year, usually a single week. They don’t own the title to the property, and they do not receive any rent revenue for the weeks they’re not in residence. Condo hotel owners can use their condos when they want throughout the year, within the guidelines of the individual development. They receive a percentage of any revenue their unit generates when they’re not there and the unit is rented out to hotel guests. Timeshares traditionally diminish in value over time, rather than appreciate. While the history of condo hotel resales is rather limited, they are seen as an appreciating asset. Condo Hotels Offer Facilities How do condo hotels differ from owning a traditional single family house or condominium? Consumers who purchase a traditional condominium pay property taxes, insurance and maintenance fees, but typically don’t have access to hotel-type amenities. Condo hotels, on the other hand, are not your standard second home. They are suites in a hotel designed condominium. The properties often feature four - or five-star amenities, ranging from full-service spas and fitness centers to fully-equipped business centers and fine-dining restaurants. They also come with exceptional hotel services like concierge, valet and room service. With condo hotels, owners reap the rewards of condo ownership while enjoying the privileges of a full-service hotel. Condo hotel units range from studios and full-size apartments to luxurious penthouses and villas. Prices for these homes range from $250,000 to over one million for top properties. Condo Hotels Generate Revenue to Cover Their Costs What makes the condo hotel concept so appealing? When owners are not using their condo hotel unit, they have the option of placing it into the hotel's rental program. They receive 60% of the revenue their unit generates with the balance going to the hotel operator. The revenue generated helps offset the costs of owning a holiday home. While many hotel operators don’t guarantee the rental of the condo, by capitalizing on the hotel's brand name, strong sales and marketing capabilities, centralized reservation system and management expertise, owners typically receive a higher level of rental income than they would from a traditional vacation home. More importantly, ownership is 100 percent hassle-free, as the hotel operator takes care of finding hotel guests and maintaining the unit as well as managing the property’s many facilities. Condo Hotel Expenses Are Shared How are the ownership expenses split? As part of the rental agreement, the hotel pays for most operating expenses such as housekeeping, administration, sales and marketing. The condo hotel owner typically pays for real estate taxes, insurance and capital improvements. The rental revenue that owners receive helps defray these expenses and, in some cases, provides additional income. Condo Hotels as Investment Tools While developers primarily sell their condo hotel units as a lifestyle and vacation home alternative, many buyers see merit in the condo hotel concept as an investment tool. They say it gives them the best of both worlds. They can enjoy all of the benefits of vacationing in a first-class hotel while they own a property that has potential to appreciate. For further information about Philippine condo hotels please do not hesitate to contact us: Beth Collingz PLC International Marketing Networks

Living a life along the beach could be one of your fondest dreams. Maybe you could have one, right after you have retired. However, retirement is not focused on picturesque views alone. There are other things that you might need when you retire and they may not be properly provided by the people you expect to give them to you. That is why it is important to plan your retirement as early as now to establish a solid future ahead. You may opt for some retirement plans or saving your money for a retirement home. Unlike the usual housing plans, retirement homes are built especially for people who wish to enjoy life after retirement. Retirement homes are especially structured to accommodate old people in an “apartment-style” dwelling. Each individual or a couple, who has acquired the retirement home on “rental basis” or have bought in infinity. On its fundamental nature, retirement homes are deemed as allocated dwelling, where people share the same place but each space is allocated into rooms suitable for every dweller. One of the advantages of retirement homes is that additional services are included in the package. In most cases, these services include recreational activities, meals, health care, or simple get together that will continuously boost the elders’ social lives. Growing old can sometimes be a pain if you do not have someone to care for you. With retirement homes, getting someone to care for you is not a problem. Having all the necessary facilities that you need by the time you retire and paying them in full will absolutely provide you the relaxation that you need. Enjoy Your New Home The problem with most people is that they forego retirement planning thinking that they are too busy now to think about the things that still lies on a few more years. In addition, many people are claiming that retirement is nothing but a few years of dullness, ennui, etc. What they do not know is that if they just try to plan now and establish a worthwhile retirement, they can possibly have the grandest times in their lives. Getting a retirement home is a no exception. If you act now and start saving for your dream retirement home, you could probably plan the things that you want to do by the time you retire. And the best thing about it is that you have other people to share the excitement of having sheer fun without worrying deadlines or instant presentations. If you think that getting a retirement home is not your cup of tea, then try considering these benefits and see for yourself if they sound better than what you have in mind. 1. Replenish the lost energy With retirement homes, you can easily replenish the lost energy and bring back the vigor you once have. There are so many things you can do in a retirement home and the good thing about them is that you do not have to push yourself to the limits or stress yourself because there are no deadlines. All you have to do is to have fun. 2. Recover your self-worth All those mind-beating reports and deadlines that often initiates burnout have gradually lessened your self-worth. With retirement homes, you can slowly regain your self-esteem. There are many activities in retirement homes that can initiate recognition of one’s inner strength, values, and reverence through many recreational activities. In retirement homes, you do not have to stop the world from turning just because you are not working anymore. With the benefits that retirement homes can give you, having real fun is just about to start.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, this is a post about investing – not baseball. So, to those of you who love reading about investing but hate reading about baseball: don’t be deterred. It’s worth reading all the way through. Return on assets is the hit by pitch of investingmon sense suggests it isn’t a very important measure. Why would any investor care about return on assets when return on equity and return on capital tell you so much more? You don’t have to know a lot about baseball to know that the number of times a batter is hit by a pitch shouldn’t tell you much about his value to the team. After all, getting hit by a pitch is a fairly rare occurrence. Even if some players are truly talented when it comes to getting plunked, they still won’t get hit enough to make a huge difference, right? That’s true. In and of itself, the act of getting hit by a pitch is not particularly productive. But (and here’s where things get interesting), as a general rule, a simple screen for the batters who get hit most often will yield a list of good, underrated players. Why? The most likely explanation is that a HBP screen returns a list of players who are similar in other, more important ways. Perhaps batters who get hit more often also tend to walk, double, homer, and fly out more often – while grounding into double plays less often. Even a casual baseball fan might suspect this. Since this blog is about investing rather than baseball, there’s no reason for me to discuss whether such a correlation really does exist. I’ll just provide a list of the top ten active leaders for HBP: Craig Biggio, Jason Kendall, Fernando Vina, Carlos Delgado, Larry Walker, Jeff Bagwell, Gary Sheffield, Damion Easley, Jason Giambi, and Jeff Kent. After the top ten, the list is no less impressive. #11 – 15 are: Derek Jeter, Luis Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Matt Lawton, and Barry Bonds. Since this list is based on career totals for active players, it's biased towards players who remain in the majors and who get a lot of plate appearances. That fact alone means the guys on this list are likely going to be above average players. However, even if you look at the single season HBP list, which includes a few young players (e. g., Jonny Gomes), the guys with high HBP totals still tend to be extraordinarily productive offensively. Simply put, screening for HBP tends to return a much higher number of “bargain” batters than you’d expect. One explanation for this is that the good things players with high HBP totals do tend to be less conspicuous than the good things other players tend to do. Might there be a parallel in the world of investing? You bet. So, again I say - Return on assets is the hit by pitch of investing. Return on assets is a good screen for high – quality, low – profile businesses. A high return on equity does not go unnoticed for long. Sometimes, a high return on assets does. Jakks Pacific (JAKK) is one good example of a high ROA stock. Its returns have basically been what you’d expect from a toy company. That may not sound like great news to owners of Jakks; but, it is. Jakks sells at a price – to – earnings ratio of about 12 and a price – to – sales ratio of about 1. The company has grown quickly. Over the past five years, revenue has grown at an annual rate of about 25%. Shareholders haven’t enjoyed the full benefits of that growth, because of share dilution – but, that’s something best left to a longer discussion of Jakks. The point here is simple. Jakks may not be anything special as a toy company, but it is a toy company. Jakks’ past return on assets proves that simply being a toy company is something special. Jakks’ "normal" ROA of around 5 – 12% may be nothing extraordinary in the toy business; but, it is far more than what most businesses earn. If there will be any future growth at Jakks, the current P/E of 12 will be shown to have been utterly ridiculous. If you screen for high returns on equity, you might have missed Jakks. But, if you screen for high returns on assets, you’d have caught this apparent bargain. By the way, I believe Joel Greenblatt’s magic formula would have lead you to Jakks as well. Village Supermarket (VLGEA) is another stock that has often earned a good return on assets, but has failed to ever earn a high enough return on equity to get much attention. This business is not as cheap as it once was; but, it isn’t exactly expensive at these prices either. For at least five years now, Village has looked quite clearly like it should be valued as a mediocre business. That’s saying something, because the market has continually valued VLGEA as a sub – par business; which it isn’t. In 2000, you could have bought VLGEA at a 50% discount to book value. In 2001, the average buyer still obtained shares at a greater than 25% discount to book value. By then, anyone who had been monitoring Village’s return on assets for the previous five years would have known the stock was cheap. For the last ten years, Village’s return on equity has been nothing more than average; however, the performance of the stock has been anything but average. An investor with one eye on Village’s price – to – book ratio and the other eye on Village’s return on assets would have enjoyed the decade long climb without breaking a sweat. Another one of my favorite high ROA stocks is CEC Entertainment (CEC) – better known as Chuck E. Cheese. Recently, the stock has earned a good return on equity. However, a simple screen based on ROE would have brought a lot of less than wonderful businesses to your attention along with Chuck E. Cheese. Return on assets told a different story. Chuck E. Cheese has consistently earned an extraordinary return on assets for the last decade. Now, it’s true that Chuck E. Cheese has earned a very nice return on equity as well. But, if you're an investor who knows what normal ROA numbers look like, one look at CEC's return on assets will blow you away. Debt can play the role of the fairy godmother. So, an investor needs to look beyond the veil of current performance. Return on assets can often provide a glimpse of what the stroke of midnight will bring. ROA is just one piece of the puzzle. But, it’s an important piece nonetheless. A high return on assets doesn’t guarantee quality. However, I’ve found that Mr. Market has usually offered many more small, growing companies with extraordinary returns on assets than he has offered small, growing companies with extraordinary returns on equity. Therefore, just as a general manager might want to run a quick screen for a high HBP number, you may want to run a quick screen for a high ROA number. I know it’s not supposed to be the best indicator of a bargain. But, in my experience, it tends to turn up a lot of neat ideas. Obviously, a high return on equity is important. I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m just saying a high return on assets is more important than you think.

The Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account), named after Senator William V. Roth, Jr., came into effect on January 1, 1998. A result of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, the Roth IRA provides a benefit which is otherwise not available in any other form of retirement savings. If you meet the criteria and subscribe to the Roth IRA, all your savings will be tax-free when you or your beneficiary draws on them. Another advantage is that you can also avoid the early distribution penalties, which you would otherwise have to pay with any other type of withdrawals. The picture, however, is not all that rosy. This is because you don’t get a deduction when you contribute to the Roth IRS. But since you already paid the taxes for the money contributed to this account, you don’t have to pay any at the time of withdrawal. You need to meet certain eligibility criteria in order to contribute to the Roth IRA. One basic condition is that you should have earned income. Also, the gross income should be within certain limits, which will depend on your tax-filing status. There is a limit to the amount that you can contribute towards the Roth IRA. For this year, the contribution can be either up to $4,000, or 100% of your earned income, depending on which is less. The time for filing the contributions is from January 1 of every year until the deadline for filing taxes. Regarding distribution, the contributed money can be withdrawn from the Roth IRA anytime. As already mentioned, the money is both tax-free and penalty-free, if the Roth IRA has been in existence for at least 5 years. The other conditions include that the money can be withdrawn after the person has attained an age of fifty-nine and a half years, or if the person has become disabled. Also, the named beneficiary can withdraw the money after the person’s death.

Let’s face it. Most of the financial advice out there says something like this, “If you make on average $60,000 per year…” Most of the advice is designed for baby boomers about to retire. The young generation 35 years-old and under are not going to relate when their incomes range from $25,000 to $40,000. True their income may rise someday but there is a good chance it could decrease with the onslaught of lay-offs, downsizing and cost cutting. The wages their parents earned who worked at companies like GM making a combined income of benefits and wages in the $65 per hour range are not likely to be around in the future. Many of these companies have two-tier wage systems that hire new workers somewhere around $24 per hour (benefits and wages combined). Not only are low wages going to be a problem but also lack of employment opportunities, high interest mortgages, expensive college education, lack of social security income and major cut backs in all federal spending. So what strategies should a young person making his/her way in a “tough times” economy to do? The biggest advantage young people have is their agepound interest is a very powerful force that is likely to make or break a retiree. By putting away only $200 per month from the age of 30 and compounding it at 9% interest a young person could have around $500,000 by the time they are 67 years-old. Double that amount and you could be well over a million dollars. With a 401K offered by your employer it becomes very easy to save because it is pretax dollars that you don’t have to think about. You may also choose to put your money into a Roth IRA. Generally, the money is taxed before it is put away and then you don’t have to pay taxes on it in retirement. Not a bad deal when it has compounded for 30 years. The best retirement utilizes a combination of the two. It is beneficial to put away money automatically in your 401K and set a goal of putting away $100 or $200 per month into a Roth IRA. One may also consider reducing the cost of big expenditures and saving big money. The housing market is beginning to cool as baby boomers are leaving the market with their large incomes. It won’t be long before appreciation on houses has returned to a mediocre percent such as 3%-5%. As a young person trying to show his or her financial stuff they may want to buy the nicest houses they can get. Unfortunately that nice house also comes with a large mortgage payment. A good rule to follow is that your housing cost should not be over 25% of your household income. For example, If my wife and I make 70,000 (two young professionals at $35,000/year) than we could have a house that costs $1,400 per month. Because we are financial savvy, with a lot of energy, we bought an older house with an $800 per month mortgage payment, put our sweat equity in it, and watched its value increase 20%. Because we were under our $1,400 limit we also bought 10 acres for a nice cottage at $300 per month. Now we are increasing our long-term assets at a cost of $1,100 per month. What happens to the savings? Well they go into our retirement account. Of course one of the best ways of saving money is diverting your expenses into investments. Basically, “You don’t buy what you don’t need!” Go to discount grocery stores, take cheap vacations within driving distance, buy good quality clothes at discount prices, and stick to a solid budget. It is much easier to save money than it is to make more. Keep in mind that even though you don’t look as wealthy as your friends you are probably much wealthier financially. Trust me; no one gets out of college making a hundred thousand dollars a year. Therefore, don’t try and make your self look like it.

One day you will wake up and your children will be ‘grown’ and heading off to school. Have you thought about how you will finance their education? If you haven’t heard already, the cost of a decent education is continually rising above and beyond what ordinary people can afford. If you have more than one child, you can expect a financial burden that might almost seem overwhelming. Did you know that within the next 10 years, the cost of an average education for a bachelor degree is expected to rise to $200,000 per year? Fortunately there is good news for parents of children that expect to attend college one day. There are several key strategies you can adopt to ensure that you save enough money for your child or children’s education. Many smart parents know exactly what it takes to afford an education. Here are their strategies: Start Saving Early – The sooner you start saving the less you will have to save. This is just a fact. Most parents don’t start saving until their children are already half way to their college years. You should start saving as soon as you have your baby. For their first birthday present consider opening a savings account for college. Investigate Primary Sources of Financial Aid – You can virtually finance an entire education using a combination of scholarships financial aid programs and loans. Though some of these aren’t as cost effective as other methods (you’ll have to pay interest on some loans) they will still help you get through the college years. Most scholarships you don’t have to pay back. You should investigate little known scholarship programs. Set up Tax Deferred Accounts – These include 529 savings plans and educational IRA’s which won’t count toward your family assets, which the school takes into consideration when calculating how much of a contribution you can make toward your child’s education. Other things you can do include encouraging your children to pursue in state collegiate programs which will save you a fortunate in out of state added expenses. Remember to prepare financially for your children’s education. You have to start planning the moment they are born! If you don’t live in an area that offers solid collegiate programs, consider moving early enough so that your child can still obtain in state benefits in another area by the time they are college age. Also make a point to start cutting out little ‘extras’ such as a latte from Starbucks every morning. Instead, give up your latte a couple of days a week and put that money in your child’s savings account. Time is truly your best friend when it comes to your children’s education. The more time you allow yourself to save, the less money you will have to come up with in a short period of time! A small investment of $50 a month goes a long way over a period of 18 years. You can save for college and still enjoy life to the fullest!

The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary. This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Futures trading. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about futures markets and trading them. How a strategic money management plan works is discipline, not magic. In the market place it’s possible to be right, and to still lose money. In fact, it’s pretty common. Traders who win on a high percentage of their trades often end up with their capital eroded away, and left with nothing to show for their work. They lose their gains because they don’t know how to manage their money. Being a good manager of your own money is one of the most difficult of skills to learn. But if you do not use good money management to bank profits, learn to take small losses when you are wrong and control your use of margin, you will lose it all. No matter how good of a trader you think you are, your first priority needs to be protecting your capital if you want to be successful. As a trader, your capital is the most valuable asset you have. It is your only asset in the eyes of the market. Without it, you can’t work at all. For this reason, bringing in no profits on a trade is better than losing any part of your margined account. If your account is intact, you are alive and live to trade another day. If your capital has suffered a loss your efforts for making gains will wasted playing catch-up. The more you’ve lost, the longer it will take to get back to where you started from, because now you have a smaller pile of capital to work from. A smaller capital base means smaller percentage returns on profits. Making 10% on a $5,000 account earns you $500, but if you’ve lost half of that account and have only $2,500 left, making 10% on your money will earn you only $250. You’d have to do that twice to make the same $500. Sound money management has two main goals: to avoid losing money, and to avoid missing profit opportunities. The first goal is straightforward. You want to preserve your money and whatever profits you’ve accumulated. But you don’t just want to keep your capital and let it go stagnant. You want to trade with it, to continue to grow it and make your returns larger and larger. Not keeping your money tied up in bad or problem trades for long periods of time will allow you to not miss new profit opportunities when they come along. Failing to avoid either of these will cost you It's really a good idea to probe a little deeper into the subject of Futures. What you learn may give you the confidence you need to venture into new areas. Working to avoid losing those profit making opportunities isn’t quite as obvious a goal. With the second goal in mind let’s compare the outcomes of two money-management decisions. Trader X buys a futures position, expecting it to go up, and finds that it doesn’t. However, he’s certain it will go up eventually, and he’s incurred a small loss, so he decides to wait it out. He ends up holding the position for two months before finally selling it. Trader Y buys the same futures at the same time as Trader X, but once he sees that it isn’t going up, he sells it at a small loss. He buys another futures position and makes a 10% profit on it. His next trade loses 2%, but after that he makes 7 %, and then loses 1%, and then gains 25% on a series of trades. Because the account is growing and he makes gains on an ever larger base of capital each time, at the end of two months, his account has grown quite handsomely, even though Trader Y was WRONG 50% of the time. Which money management decision turned out to be the best? While Trader Y made a nice profit, Trader X not only lost time but also never made his money back. Even if he had made his money back on that position, it’s hard to see how this was a good use of his operating funds over the course of two months. Clearly the goal of not tying up your capital in bad trades has an important impact on your profits. Using sound money management will keep your trading funds and your profits safe. Though it is a difficult skill to learn, once you know how to practice good money management techniques, you can almost guarantee that you will be a successful trader. If you've picked up some pointers about Futures that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won't really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don't use it. More information can be found at futurestradingsite

Iraq's massive oil and gas reserves: Iraq has the largest gas and the second largest oil reserve in the world! That's like having pure gold in your soil. The oil alone is good for $10 trillion. Do you think it will do the Iraqi dinar any good? $70 billion economy potential: With their oil and gas reserves, foreign investors, aid, highly educated population, regional agreements and Iraq's great access to fresh water for agriculture it has the potential to become one of the richest countries in the world. Independent Central Bank of Iraq: The Central Bank of Iraq isn't affected by any political party in any way because it is an independent agency. They also offered their first treasury bonds and most of the private commercial banks in Iraq participated. Booming real estate market: Because money starts to flow and everybody in Iraq is now entitled to buy (instead of only Saddam's inner circle) houses wherever they want this market will be enormous in the coming years. Great security features of the new Iraqi Dinar: When there is confidence in this currency, stability and growth will follow. The security measures of the Iraqi dinar are very good. Writing that is only visible in ultra violet, color changing symbol, metallic ink, watermarks and more! New stock market of Iraq: Opened recently and of course very important for developing a country. More foreign investors will be attracted to Iraq this way. Since introduction up by 25%: The new Iraqi dinar has risen from 3500-4000 to 5000-5500 for a dollar from 2003 till now. A successfull Iraq will bring it up more and also to an international recognized currency

Between paying a stream of monthly bills, buying groceries, filling up the gas tank and managing countless other daily expenses, it's becoming more and more difficult for the average American to save for the big things: a college education, a new home, retirement. Investing is one of the best ways to build up a comfortable financial cushion over time, but it takes diligence to allocate money for an investment account on a regular basis. Fortunately, there is an easy way to tuck away a few dollars, without even thinking about it, every time you shop. To help people become more disciplined investors, Vesdia Corp. offers an easy savings program called Stockback. Through the program, shoppers earn unlimited rebates on the everyday items they buy from a network of more than 500 participating merchants, including 1-800-Flowers, Eddie Bauer, Hickory Farms, The Sharper Image, Media Play, Illuminations, Barnes & Noble and Sam Goody. People participating in the program can choose to have their rebates sent to them via check or deposited directly into an IRA, mutual fund, money-market account or virtually any other savings vehicle they choose. In the past year, Vesdia also rolled out a Stockback Loyalty Rewards Card that lets cardholders earn rebates of up to 2 percent every time they use the card -- no matter where they shop. Using the card at Stockback's participating merchants earns additional rebates of up to 7 percent. And to make it even easier for its members to invest, Stockback recently formed a partnership with ShareBuilder, an online investing company. Through ShareBuilder, investors can conveniently purchase stock for a low transaction fee with no minimum investment requirements. ShareBuilder Securities is an independent broker-dealer and member NASD/SIPC. Simply choose the dollar amount you want to invest in particular stocks. ShareBuilder will then buy the stocks at current market prices and let you know how many shares you've purchased. Stockback members earn an additional 2 percent when using the Stockback Loyalty Rewards Card to pay for ShareBuilder Investing Program monthly subscription fees. Anyone can join the Stockback program for free by completing an online membership application. Once you submit your application, you can begin shopping and earning immediately.

We wrote about Kilgore Minerals this past winter, because it holds prospective U. S. uranium properties. While studying the company, it became evident the company’s uranium would take a backseat to the company’s gold property in southern Idaho. We reviewed Robert Bishop’s commentary in his self-published Gold Mining Stock Report. Mr. Bishop is highly regarded as an astute junior gold stock picker, and his analysis is quite thorough. There is little doubt Bishop holds high esteem for Kilgore Minerals’ Chief Executive Norman Burmeister. More importantly, the very successful Pinetree Capital (Toronto: PNP) has made a significant investment in Kilgore. Respectively, the Chief Executive and CFO, Sheldon Inwentash and Larry Goldberg, of both Pinetree Capital and heavily touted Mega Uranium (TSX: MGA), have personally invested in Kilgore Minerals. A recent Forbes magazine article took a swipe at both Mega Uranium and Pinetree Capital. Actually, it was more of a head butt. Pinetree Capital is back to trading above C$17/share, up from a year ago when it traded for less than $3/share. So the Forbes article was a non-event for Pinetree Capital. And their holdings in Kilgore Minerals, which reportedly are estimated at between 10 and 20 percent of the company, were passed by without notice. Property History Kilgore’s Idaho gold property has been explored since the 1930’s, when a gold discovery was made by the Blue Ledge Co. Nearly 50 claims were staked in 1982 and leased to a Kennecott subsidiary in the mid 1980s. Seven holes were drilled. By 1990, Placer Dome acquired the property and drilled 39 holes, more than 21,000 feet of drilling. A Pegasus joint venture drilled another 23 holes, nearly 10,000 feet of drilling, by 1994. Echo Bay earned majority interest in the property, by 1996, after having spent $3.5 million drilling 122 holes for more than 82,000 feet. In 1997, with the falling price of gold and troubles in the mining sector brought on by the Indonesia stock fraud, Bre-X Minerals, Echo Bay dropped its exploration ambitions on Kilgore – and shelved all of its exploration projects. In 1998, Latitude Minerals continued a modest exploration of a little more than 4,000 feet. Near the bottom of the gold bear market, Kilgore Gold (a wholly owned subsidiary of Kilgore Minerals) acquired 100 percent ownership of the property. A new round of preliminary exploration identified new gold targets. By 2004, Kilgore Gold expanded the company’s property holdings to 3,000 acres. Has this property been drilled like Swiss cheese or does Norman Burmeister know what he is doing? It’s had nearly 200 diamond and reverse circulation drill holes, totaling more than 126,000 feet of drilling. In an earlier interview with Burmeister, he told us, “I’m very excited about this project. It was a property that was very high on Echo Bay’s list.” Major companies have expended more than $8 million to define a modest, and possibly economic, resource. At least three different entities have established resource estimates on the Kilgore gold property. In 1996, Placer Dome reported 14.1 million tons, grading 0.04 ounces/ton and with a cut-off grade of 0.015, for a deposit of 561,000 ounces of gold. A year later, Echo Bay released a sectional estimate report showing 18.7 million tons, grading 0.029, for a total of 534,959 ounces of gold. However, the only resource estimate approved by Canadian regulators (Kilgore trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange) is the Van Brunt/Rayner Technical Report, filed in October 2002, and which is compliant with National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). This report showed about 7 million tons trading 0.031, with a 0.01 cut-off grade, for an indicated resource of 218,000 ounces of gold. The report showed an inferred resource, adding another 269,000 ounces of gold. This is close enough to the Placer Dome and Echo Bay estimates, but it is unlikely to be mineable unless Kilgore finds more gold. During the 2004 drilling program, Norm Burmeister got the sniff of what might make this an attractive acquisition by a major gold company. “We are looking for a high grade feeder system,” Burmeister told us. In the previous drilling program, Burmeister got and encouraging intercept of 0.465 ounce per ton gold over 10 feet within a broader 170-foot zone of low-grade mineralization at 0.04 ounces per ton. On Tuesday, Kilgore Gold made its announcement it would commence its chase to find out if, indeed, there is an elephant discovery of gold on its property. In an email to us, Norm Burmeister wrote, “The high-grade zone, called the “Elsa Zone”, was intersected at a core depth of 410 feet. It is important to note that this hole was drilled in an area that had never been drilled some 4650 feet from the resource area.” The Elsa Zone is located within the Dog Bone Ridge target area. Burmeister also pointed out, “There are no known workings in the area, and there is no known gold mineralization at the surface, thus making the Elsa Zone a true ‘blind discovery.’ Kilgore’s blind discovery in the Elsa Zone proves there may be some prospects in the very large Dog Bone Ridge target area. Rationale The purpose of the 2006 drilling program, Burmeister told us, is to determine “the true potential of the Dog Bone Ridge area target.” Niel Prenn, a professional engineer with Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada, completed a scoping level update of Echo Bay’s 1996 assessment of the project. He wrote, “The project appears to have reasonably attractive economics if the ‘potentially mineable material’ can be doubled at $375/ounce gold price.” Prenn saw the Kilgore project as one with a “large epithermal gold deposit.” This confirmed an earlier geological report by Stanton W. Caddey, who wrote in an October 2003 report, “Exploration potential at the Kilgore property for more than doubling the present gold resource with further exploration drilling is regarded as excellent.” The encouraging drill hole in 2004 helped move this project to the current drilling program. “We believe the Dog Bone Ridge target area represents the core of the hydrothermal system that has generated the known low grade resource at Kilgore,” Burmeister speculated. That’s why he is drilling the Dog Bone Ridge target area. The first holes will be offsets to the promising 2004 discovery hole. “We don’t know the direction or dipping,” said Burmeister, asking “Which way does it go?” The first hole will help Burmeister orient the direction on the north side of the target. Burmeister told us, “The knowledge we hope to gain from the Elsa Zone offsets will be important in efficiently testing other Elsa ‘look-a-like’ definitive targets within the Dog Bone Ridge target area.” Expectations A drill campaign tends to intensify expectations. Share prices tend to rally higher, depending upon market conditions, during a drill campaign. The company hopes to drill about twelve holes, down between 500 and 800 feet, in the target area. The first hole may be encouraging, but the results from that hole function as an identifier for where to place the next drill hole. “The best target has never been touched,” said Burmeister, referring to the north side of the Dog Bone Ridge. As with many promising properties, they don’t always offer the easiest access. In this case, Burmeister’s expectant target on the north side of Dog Bone Ridge might only be accessed by helicopter, if that’s where he has to drill. What happens if Burmeister is accurate in his assessment? If his favored Dog Bone Ridge target does represent the core of the hydrothermal system, then what will he have found? “As such, it represents an attractive high grade epithermal vein-type gold target,” Burmeister responded. “The successful interception of high grade gold during the 2004 program confirmed this interpretation.” In 1980, Burmeister founded Bull Run Gold Mines, serving as Chief Executive and developing a successful Nevada gold mine. He arranged the IPO, which led to a NASDAQ National Market listing, and ran the company for eight years. For thirteen years before that, he was the chief geologist for Silver Standard Resources. Burmeister discovered the Mill Creek orebody in Elko (Nevada), which moved that company forward. The property was subsequently sold to Freeport-McMoran. Burmeister also conceived for Silver Standard of a novel regional exploration program, covering 10,000 square miles in the Yukon over nearly unexplored territory. In a joint-venture with ASARCO, he helped discovery the Minto orebody in the Yukon. The copper-gold deposit is now going into production through Sherwood Copper. After forty years in the mining industry, he hopes Dog Bone Ridge will add to his string of gold discoveries and corporate success stories.

: Every minute more than 150 Million Dollars change hands in the electronic index futures markets like the e-mini S&P and e-mini NQ. You can win or lose thousands of dollars in a few minutes; the futures markets can make you rich in a few weeks or months or wipe out your account with no mercy. If you want to compete in the game of games and play against the best day traders in the world, then you need to get ready. Too many gamblers are entering the arena without any plan or strategy, completely unprepared, and that's why they lose. Trading a system will dramatically increase your chances to succeed in trading, because it eliminates five of the top six reasons why unprepared traders fail. Here are the top six reasons why traders fail, and how a trading system eliminates them Let's take a look at the reasons why traders lose money: 1. Lack of a good Day Trading Plan 2. Lack of Discipline to Follow the Trading Plan 3. Failure to Control Emotions 4. Failure to Accept and Limit Losses 5. Lack of Commitment 6. Over-Trading By all means you have to avoid these mistakes if you want to win. Here's how a trading system eliminates 5 of the 6 top reasons why traders fail: Solution #1: Having a trading plan Having a trading system means having a pre-defined set of rules you have developed to guide your day trading. Therefore you HAVE a trading plan, eliminating the No.1 cause for failure. Solution #2: Following the day trading plan The easiest way to follow a day trading plan is to automate it. Almost every daytrading system can be automated, and you could let the computer trade online for you. You won't have to worry about your discipline any longer, as the computer mechanically trades every setup for you. Solution #3: Controlling emotions Trading with a system removes emotions from trading. If you don't have a day trading strategy and you try to make decisions when the market is moving, you are liable to become emotionally attached to positions. You may experience panic and indecision when the market does not move in your favor, as you do not have a prepared response. That's when most traders lose their money. If you follow a system you will know what to do no matter what the market does. Solution #4: Controlling your losses You probably have heard the saying Let your profits run. Unfortunately most traders let their losses run. A daytrading system will get you out of a position when the predefined stop is hit. Unless you override the system to give the trade a little bit more room it will stop the loss and therefore limit your losses. Solution #5: Commitment You won't believe how many traders show a lack of commitment and therefore lose money. Lack of commitment means that they stop trading after the first loss, and don't give their system a chance to make back the money they lost. Trading is not a one-way street, and losses are part of our business. If you can't accept the fact that there will be losses, you shouldn't trade. Fortunately a trading system can help you to overcome this problem; an automated daytrading system continues trading according to the rules, and therefore adds much more consistency to your trading. As you can see, Five of the six top reasons why traders lose money in the markets are simply eliminated when you start trading with a system. Without any guarantee, your chances of making money rise incredibly when starting with a profitable trading system. Author’s name Markus Heitkoetter Author's Info: Markus Heitkoetter is a 19 year veteran of the markets and the CEO of Rockwell Trading. For more free information and tips and trick how to make consistent profits with online trading, For more information visit this website rockwelltrading.